OCR Recognition and Data Acquisition Case of Oil and Gas Production Plant

Aug,01,2025 << Return list

一、Background Requirements

Project location : Yulin City, Shaanxi Province
Project owner : Implementing unit: Shaanxi Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., final user: Yanchang Gas Production Plant No. 2 and Plant No. 3 under Yanchang Petroleum Group

Project requirements : Data collection of pointer-type meters (pressure gauges, temperature gauges) is aggregated to the Yanchang Petroleum Group's intelligent safety production management platform for unified monitoring and management.

Project pain points : The distribution of meter points on the gas transmission pipelines of the gas production plants of the second and third plants is complex, with different locations and relatively scattered. According to the regular operation production plan, a fixed time is required to monitor the corresponding pressure and temperature data of the operation pipeline to achieve the purpose of regulation. The manual reading and human-computer interaction data entry of the traditional solution cannot achieve the purpose of real-time data supervision of the production line. On the other hand, most of the sites are pointer-type pressure gauges, temperature gauges, etc., which do not have communication interfaces. Even if some have communication interfaces, the wiring collection method for explosion-proof application scenarios has too high wiring costs.

Various pressure and temperature gauges for gas pipelines

Some point statistics table

Evaluation and Implementation : According to the existing needs, the data collection of these meters is realized by installing an OCR image recognition collection device ( SC-LP-CAM ), which is battery-powered and wirelessly transmitted to collect instrument data and transmit it to the background .

二、Collection products

The data acquisition products that match the corresponding meters are our company's image recognition camera products: micro-power wireless camera meter reader & OCR camera recognition terminal (SC-LP-CAM), the main parameters and functions of the products are:

Product Name	Functional Description	Parameter configuration	Advantages
Micro-power wireless camera meter reader	The camera meter reading terminal series, battery-powered wireless timing camera meter reading terminal, is a data collection terminal for fast meter reading of traditional old mechanical meters (water meters, electricity meters, gas meters, pressure gauges, etc.) or meters that cannot communicate directly. The camera terminal takes pictures at set time intervals, and uploads the pictures to the server for analysis and recognition to obtain the meter readings. Users can view the original pictures and recognition result data. The terminal has a built-in long-life lithium battery and supports NB-IOT communication. It can overcome the wireless communication obstruction caused by the special environment on site, greatly simplifying the on-site deployment time and reducing construction costs.	1 Instrument photo collection characteristics Image format type: jpg Image pixels: maximum support 640480 Collection frequency: 10 minutes ~ 24h, support remote configuration Wake-up mode: interval wake-up; timed wake-up; alarm wake-up 2 Electrical characteristics* Power supply: 3.6V long-life lithium battery power supply (non-rechargeable) Battery capacity: 8500mAh Power consumption: current less than 200mA Standby current: less than 5uA 3 Structural characteristics Material: PC plastic (shell) Main body protection level: IP65 Water meter size: 135mm×95mm×55mm Electric meter size: 120mm×110mm×50mm T-type size: 82mm×88mm×63mm Main body Installation method: Paste or narrow band clamp fastening 4 Working environment Ambient temperature -25°C～75°C, humidity 0～95% (non-condensing)	1. Powered by lithium battery, supports about 3,000 photos, and can last for about 7 years if taken once a day; 2. Built-in telecom IoT NB card, signal coverage nationwide; 3. Various appearances (square, round, convex), quickly adapt to on-site industrial instruments; 4. Supporting cloud platform, snapped pictures and recognition results are pushed regularly, and API interface is provided free of charge. 5. Clear picture quality, recognition accuracy: greater than 99% 6. Easy to install, reducing construction troubles and costs.


T-shaped: clamp installation form, suitable for single pointer pressure and temperature gauges

三、Implementation process

3.1 Technical Solution

Technical solution topology diagram

The meter is covered with a buckle-type identification terminal. Through OCR photo recognition, data is uploaded to the background for processing. No wiring is required on site, which simplifies the cost of manual implementation. Data is transmitted to the cloud platform wirelessly. The platform provides a free API interface for docking with third-party platforms. It can be actively called or pushed to the third platform by our cloud platform in the form of MQTT transmission.

On-site installation implementation diagram

Remote docking debugging

3.2 Factors affecting installation implementation

1) The collection meter provides confirmation (applicable to mechanical water, electricity, and gas meter collection, or digital display instruments with a permanently lit screen and no page display jumps) .

2) The size of the meter display panel (whether the product can completely cover the display panel), the appearance shape, and whether it conforms to square or round products.

3) Single-line (single-pointer) data collection.

4) Collection frequency (the fastest frequency for battery-powered products is once every 10 minutes, which can be set from 10 minutes to 24 hours. If you want to achieve high-frequency collection (once every 5 minutes), considering the battery life issue, you need to convert the device to an externally powered version).

5) Power supply: conventional battery power supply (power supply supports about 3000 photos), external power supply version can be changed.

6) Signal (the product usually has a built-in patch antenna. If the meter being collected is in a closed environment, it is necessary to confirm whether the signal is affected. Consider modifying it to an external antenna version).